Notes / Commercial Description:
Brewed for City Beer Store in San Francisco, CA in celebration of their seventh anniversary. Magnificent Seven uses seven different malts, seven different hops with seven different additions, and is 7.7% ABV.

Reviews by popery:

Review from bottle, previously tried on draft. Pours tawny and clear. Small off-white head. Good lacing and retention. Looked pretty much the same from the keg. The aroma has lots of citrus and tropical fruit with stone fruit, berries and grapes chiming in, as well. I'm mostly getting tangerine and pineapple. Some peach, apricot, raspberry, green grapes, grass and honeysuckle. Lots of hops. I'm getting some definite Nelson Sauvin probably combined with Citra and other more citrusy hops. A gentle touch of caramel malt sweetness comes out but sticks to the background. I was a bit worried that the beer would be maltier, based on the seven hop/seven malt angle, but it's definitely right in Alpine's normal, hop-forward IPA wheelhouse. The taste starts with a burst of sweet green grapes, peaches and juicy pineapple. Tangerine and grapefruit flavors come out next and provide some solid bitterness. Mild pale malt sweetness with a touch of that caramel holds up the hops. There also seems to be some rye spice zinging around. The finish is citrus, grass and floral hoppiness. The beer is moderately dry and chock full of hop flavor. Mouthfeel is pretty normal for an Alpine IPA. Perhaps, a bit more body, but it's still light on the palate with a pleasant hop oiliness. Overall, it's worthy of standing alongside the rest of Alpine's IPA lineup. I prefer Nelson and would probably put it right around Duet. It's just a touch unfocused. However, it's a minor criticism, and the beer is still quite good.

More User Reviews:

Hazy burnt amber and light copper. Creamy, moderately-sized off white head. Great retention and a very sticky IPA. This leaves irregular ribbons of sticky lace left down the pint glass. As usual, Alpine makes a gorgeous IPA.

The aroma is well balanced. This is definitely hoppy, though has good amounts of sweet, bready malt character as well. A bit of pine, floral notes, and a mild citrus rind character butted up against mild caramel and biscuit.

The flavor is similar to the aroma. Moderate bitterness, citrus zest and mild pine, with good amounts of caramel malt. A bit of a bread or biscuit character as well. Very drinkable.

Medium bodied with moderate to high carbonation.

An IPA without an identity. Duet, Nelson, and Pure Hoppiness are such special beers because they do certain things, individually, remarkably well. This seems like a well-rounded, drinkable, balanced, though tasty, fresh IPA. I'd drink anything from the year-round Alpine IPA lineup before ordering another pint of this (very good IPA).

T - Almost perfect balance of malts and hops. Definitely dominant hop flavor with an incredibly complex profile. Very delicious. One of the best tasting DIPAs I have ever had.

M - Extremely smooth and easy to drink. The head retains the nice carbonation and flavor throughout.

O - Like I said, clearly one of the best tasting DIPAs I have ever had. I bought 6 bottles at the 7th Anniversary at City Beer Store in SF. I had one on that day too, but did not take notes. I decided to put this up against 3 other DIPAs in a blind taste test on my birthday. The first place DIPA, which I thought was the Mag 7, turned out to be PtE. But the Mag 7 was a very, very close 2nd. The other two unnamed local DIPAs were crap next to these two. Since this was brewed only once, for the CBS anniversary, I doubt I will ever get to try it again, so for that, I would rate it higher than PtE.

Appearance: Amber with some haziness. The body is capped by a finger of clinging froth.

Smell: A stonefruit medley of peach and apricot, with pineapple in the peripheral. Nelson sauvin is prominent, bringing gooseberry and white grape must. There's a hint of diacetyl that works nicely with the nelson hops, bringing to mind a buttery white wine. Malt is present, moreso than usual with Alpine - in particular there's a rustic rye character.

Palate: Pineapple, sweet gooseberry jam and peach hit the tongue first, bringing layered sweetness. Earthier rye notes pop out mid-palate. There's a slight peppery spiciness to the finish, and a mild earthy biterness. Medium-full in body, more hefty than crisp, though it's an easy drinker nonetheless. Nelson sauvin steals the show here, to such an extend that this pretty much feels like a slight variation on Alpine's Nelson IPA, only with a bit more malt sweetness and body to it. Hard to complain about that. I wouldn't say that this is better than Alpine's year-round hoppy offerings, but it is still leagues ahead of most other IPAs out there.